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The Manner of Christ's Eucharistic Presence in the Early and Medieval

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The Manner of Christ's Eucharistic Presence in the Early and Medieval CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Wilfrid Laurier University Consensus Volume 6 | Issue 4 Article 1 10-1-1980 The am nner of Christ's eucharistic presence in the early and medieval church Egil Grislis Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus Recommended Citation Grislis, Egil (1980) "The am nner of Christ's eucharistic presence in the early and medieval church," Consensus: Vol. 6 : Iss. 4 , Article 1. Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol6/iss4/1 This Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE MANNER OF CHRIST’S EUCHARISTIC PRESENCE IN THE EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHURCH Egil Grislis The roots of Lutheran theology are found both in the Early and the Medieval Church. Precisely because our theology is confessedly biblical, we discover its au- thentic beginnings wherever in the centuries preceding the Reformation the Scrip- tures were read, reflected upon, and devoutly followed. Admittedly, there are out- siders who, despite the dawn of an ecumenical age, are unacquainted with the ethos of the Lutheran variety of theology and imagine that we are mere followers of one Martin Luther. To them and sometimes to ourselves, when we seem to have forgotten who we are, we must confess that we are disciples of Jesus Christ — whom Martin Luther followed, and surely not alone, but in the company of that communion of saints which we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, common to Western Christendom and to us.’ At the same time, as it is appropriate to distinguish between root, stem, and flowers, so it is in order to inquire just how the earlier understanding of the euchar- istic presence of Christ can be related to the theological insights of Martin Luther. In embarking upon this task we must note that the Early Church, in contrast to the Christological problem, did not settle the eucharistic question. Admittedly, even the Christological solution did not emerge at once. Rather a complex statement was made in stages in which certain issues were never exhaustively defined. Hence the result was a very difficult formulation, requiring a great deal of both time and learn- ing for proper comprehension. Nevertheless, the Christological insights of the Early Church are essentially clear, infinitely precise, and eminently useful — despite some loud claims by modern day heretics to the contrary. The doctrine of the eucharistic presence of Christ, on the other hand, was not viewed as a controversial problem 1. Cf. Jaroslav Pelikan, Obedient Rebels: Catholic Substance and Protestant Principle of Luther's Reformation (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1964). Joseph A. Burgess, ed.. The Role of the Augsburg Confession: Catholic and Lutheran Views (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980). 3 4 Consensus and therefore did not receive a great deal of concentrated attention either by indi- vidual theologians or by church councils. As a result the eucharistic presence of Christ in the Early Church was not defined as carefully and as precisely as. later during the Middle Ages and the Reformation. Jaroslav Pelikan’s very sobering warn- “ ing therefore ought not to be overlooked: . the effort to cross-examine the fathers of the second and third century about where they stood in the controversies of the ninth or sixteenth century is both silly and futile.”’ Yet it is a serious and helpful undertaking to observe the main contours of the eucharistic theology of the Early Church and to note a few of the major problems therein. While a certain selection of representative theologians will have to be in order, that is without undue regret, because, as St. Irenaeus said, one does not have to drink the entire ocean in order to know what it tastes like! THE EARLY CHURCH The most famed of the apostolic fathers, St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred at the beginning of the second century, said in his letter to the Romans: I have no pleasure in the food of corruption or in the delights of this life. I desire the ‘bread of God,’ which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was ‘of the seed of David,’ and for drink I desire his blood, which is incorruptible love. ( 7 : 2) On the one hand, St. Ignatius identifies the eucharistic elements with the body and blood of Christ; on the other hand, he is prepared to interpret this identification in a symbolic manner. Apparently he adheres to both sides of his affirmation, with- out observing any tension or contradiction between them! Consistently St. Ignatius approaches the eucharist with infinite seriousness and in deepest reverence. In a key passage he defines the eucharist as “the medicine of immortality, {hos estin pharmakon athanasias) the antidote that we should not die, but live for ever in Jesus Christ.”’ Such are not mere occasional statements; St. Ignatius takes the eucharistic realism of the presence of Christ’s body and blood rather “strictly, for he makes it the basis of his argument against the Docetists’ denial of the reality of Christ’s body.”^ In other words, the reality of Christ’s incarnation and the fact of His eucharistic presence are for him correlative doctrines! A stronger affirmation of a real-presence-eucharistic-theology could hardly be made. Yet, at the same time St. Ignatius succeeds in incorporating in his theology a rather definite 2. Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600), (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1971), 1:167. The appropriateness of his remark may be seen by consulting such thorough yet also recognizably Anglican works as by A.J. Macdonald, The Evangelical Doctrine o/Ho/y Communion (London: S.P.C.K, 1936) and Darwell Stone, The History of the Eucharist (1909). 3. Eph. 20.3. Cf. Robert M. Grant, The Apostolic Fathers. A Translation and Commentary: IV, Ignatius of Antioch, p. 53 4. J.N.D. Kelly, Earli; Christian Doctrines (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958), p. 197, cf. Smyrn. 7.1 ^ Manner of Christ's Presence 5 symbolic perspective, as he repeatedly identifies the blood of Christ with the love of Christ.® Whether St. Ignatius recognized it or not, he thereby avoided two pitfalls. Any- one who speaks merely about the real presence of Christ in the eucharist, affirming this presence literally and without any qualifications, has thereby affirmed a bodily eating and should incur the charge of cannibalism and theophagy. Anyone, how- ever, who centers his attention exclusively on the symbolic dimensions of the eucharist, may be in the danger of succumbing to a mere memorial theory, where the experience is merely subjective, without any presently active input from Christ.® St. Justin Martyr from the middle of the second century presents a similar tension in which the thrust on the real presence also appears to predominate: For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. In this statement the accent on the flesh and blood of Christ is an outstanding feature. Even more important perhaps is Justin Martyr’s introduction of an explicit idea of change. He teaches that as the prayer “of His Word” is said, an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ is taking place. Several serious questions remain. Does Justin mean that the eucharistic elements have now been changed into the actual body of Christ, or into the sacramental body of Christ? Or does he mean that the bread and the wine, now metabolized in our bodies, serve to join us with Christ in a spiritual manner? Justin Martyr does not answer such inquiries. Yet, the significance of what he does say ought not to be brushed aside. Clearly, in the eucharist, a miracle of change does occur and the real presence of Christ is encountered. While the symbolic dimension is not ruled out, St. Justin Martyr has heavily underscored a sense of eucharistic realism. This is an important and valuable insight. To St. Irenaeus, a theologian of major stature from the end of the second cen- tury, eucharistic realism appears to be the ordinary mode of thinking theologically. The context of his thought is his intense opposition to the Gnostics — Christian heretics with strong dualistic leanings, who denied creation, incarnation, and resur- rection of the flesh, i.e., saw salvation exclusively in terms of the spirit. St. Irenaeus writes: ... He took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said. This is my body.’ And the cup likewise, which is part of that creation to which we 5. Smi^rn. 7.1; Tral. 8.1; Horn. 7.3 6. It is my conviction that the realist and symbolist motifs can bo found in every theologian of the Early Church. Certainly, clusters of theologians among these two motifs can also be ar- ranged. The traditional view, I am convinced, distanced the two motifs too artificially from each other, o.g. Hermann Sasse, This Is My Body: Luther's Contention for the Real Presence (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1959), p. 31. 7. J.N.D. Kelly, offers two divergent translations: (1) "the food which has been eucharistized by the word of prayer from Him is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus", and (2) "that food which by process of assimilation nourishes our flesh and blood is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus." p.
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